Joint Experiment
by Typewriterman
Summary: Academy City is 20-30 years ahead in technology of anywhere else in the world. It is also only a few hours' drive from Hakoniwa Academy, where Human Development is the key goal. Medaka Box Crossover. Takes place just before Vent of the Front's attack.
1. Chaos after a Storm  StillNormal

Prologue: Chaos after a Storm - Still_Normal

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"Oh no….oh-no-oh-no-oh-_no_! Come on, why do I have to be so misfortunate!"

Kamijou Touma cried out as he hurriedly pressed on the power button of the laptop. The blue screen filled with white text disappeared, meaning that the computer was shut off.

He sighed, pressing on the power button a second time to boot the computer up once again, but now had to wait for a long reload period.

This had happened more than six times that morning already.

Considering that it was in a package left outside of his apartment door last night, caught in a terrific thunderstorm that gave way to the beautiful and less humid weather of the current day, the laptop from the outside world was pretty resilient.

The word "Outside" is used because Kamijou Touma lives in a place called Academy City, the home of 2,300,000 "students" living in one area. Replete Research facilities and Universities funding projects of all kinds involving technology and science, Academy City is said to be 20-30 years ahead in technological advancement compared with anything in the current market outside of the city's walls, namely Japan where Academy City is located, but even more so elsewhere in the world.

Even if it was the most recent model, and thusly quite expensive, within Academy City this computer that the parents of Kamijou Touma had sent to him was already obsolete, if not at least absolutely ancient. Not only can a student purchase a computer that had a minimum triple the computing power and quadruple storage capacity of this laptop, they could get it for an equal or lesser price than it.

That is the technological prowess of Academy City.

The laptop, finally finished its recovery and booting up process, displays the "Macrosmooth" logo and loads the operating system's desktop up. The space is Spartan in terms of icons, but the background is a customized one. It is an image of a man and woman smiling, holding the very same laptop in view of a camera, posing with soft smiles on their faces. The words "Happy Birthday" are in the bottom right corner of the image.

It is obviously Kamijou's parents that are presented in the image, especially since that the package was sent by Kamijou Touya and Shiina, and on the image each at least looks very similar to Touma.

It's a sad thought to learn that Kamijou Touma has no memory of being raised by these two people, especially since they were earnest enough to send their son such an expensive gift for his birthday. That is because he had lost his memory of them.

Not just them, but anything about his life prior to a certain incident. Though to his benefit, Kamijou had managed to meet them on several occasions, as well as tell them of his situation after the Daihaseisai sports festival just recently.

"Touma." Accompanied by a soft mew, the pathetic moan of a girl failed to catch Kamijou's attention from the laptop.

As a safety function, the word processing program on the computer can automatically place an unsaved file into a temporary folder should it be shut down without the proper procedure. Taking advantage of this trait, Kamijou only had to open up the program and the message he was reading earlier immediately popped up before his eyes.

"Touuuumaaaa…"

Rather than send him an email, which was already accessible on his cell phone, his parents had sent a card along with the laptop within the box that read "Find our birthday message to you and you'll find out about something great, love your parents".

It was redundant, but after some grumbling, Kamijou realized that that was obviously the best way to get him to even touch the laptop instead of letting it set around in his apartment.

As his eyes settled on the third paragraph of the message when he last left off before the computer crashed for the sixth time, a sudden weight and heavy feeling of dread dropped onto his shoulders.

"Touuuuuuuuumaaaaaaaaaaa…."

"What is it, Index?" Kamijou strained against the girl that had plopped on top of him, using his arms to fight against his forward leaning momentum that would result to him dropping onto the computer.

The girl wearing a white nun's habit grumbled in response, before shifting more of her weight onto his shoulders and sighed out.

"Touma" she began, "It has already been a day since you had received that present from your parents. You said that they were the kind of parents that would send their son an extra allowance or food since you're a student, did you not?"

Thinking back to yesterday, when the two of them had just rushed back in to his dorm room apartment from the sudden rain without an umbrella, Kamijou remembered he had brought a soppy crumbled package—that he had tripped on because he had slipped—and immediately acted on saving the contents when he saw that the senders were his parents.

They were only supposed to stop by his apartment for a bit to take shelter from the rain before heading to eat outside, but the rain became a large enough lightening storm to garner warnings against going outside. The only thing was that there was no food in the refrigerator, that being the very reason for Kamijou and the small freeloader currently on his back to try to go out to eat in the first place.

The small cat resting atop Index's head mewed, to the consternation of the listless nun slowly tightening her grip onto Kamijou.

"Touma, hasn't the storm the television warned about already left? Haven't you proved that there was no food or money for food in that package?"

Though not looking at her expression, Kamijou was sure that Index's pout would slowly turn into a frown, and anything past that only turned into pain for him. Instead he chose to read on through the update and non sequitors strewn throughout the message his parents had put into the computer, almost like a letter of updates and events of things that happened at where they lived.

"Index, I'm almost done." He tried to assure her, "I just need to finish reading this last part, and I'll definitely let you eat, ok?"

"Touma!" she tightened her arm around his neck ever more so with that sudden stern outburst. "Did I ever mention that I was hungry? When did I ever give you the impression that I would tear you away from keeping close relations with your parents, whom you are commanded to honor, just to eat?"

The soft grumble that followed was something to be ignored. Even as an unlucky, bored looking, dense, clumsy, make-up student with no sense of tact, Kamijou Touma was not stupid enough to say anything.

So instead, he resigned to continuing through the message, now managing into a sentence that begun with "Now here's some great news!"

"Toumaaaaaa!"

Index flops about atop Touma's choice to ignore her, which though technically a lack of reaction to her growling stomach, was in itself a reaction in her mind.

"You didn't hear that just now, did you?"

She draws closer to him and the young teen can sense the feeling of dread becoming heavier with every passing second. Trying to pay no mind, his eyes gloss over the message mentioning something happening on the 29th, two days from today.

"You should answer, Touma! It would be worse if you lied, so if just you admit it, I'll forgive you because of my churchly duties…"

A friend of their parents had business in Academy City and he was expected to meet them and help them find a place to stay for the time being.

"…." Ever closer now, the tips of Index's bared teeth brush against his ear, causing a shiver to run down Kamijou's spine.

The ears themselves, made up of nerves and cartilage, are naturally sensitive. The reaction that raced through Kamijou's body however, was more along the lines of Pavlov's conditional reflex, or even closer to reliving past trauma.

"N-no, Index, I don't know what you're talking about!"

Kamijou Touma jumped slightly forward, giving slack to his arms for a half second and coming ever closer to falling on top of the computer.

"You shouldn't lie to me, Toooooouuuuuuuumaaaaaaaaaaa…." The small nun resting on his shoulders breathed out ominously, letting him feel her grasping closer like a boa constrictor around a mouse. "Did you or did you not hear **it**?"

"I didn't hear what happened, Index! I swear!"

The weight of the girl on top of him was nothing when compared to his own, nor was it any difficult to carry her in past times. But those were times when he had the strength of his lower body to push up and his back to support the strength in his arms.

In the awkward position of sitting cross legged against the computer, leaning forward and relying on his arms to carry not only his upper body but that of Index—and Sphinx—Kamijou was in a perilous position in this yoga-like pose.

"Their name is…" the message continues before he hears a frustrated growl coming from his right shoulder.

"What do you _mean_ 'you didn't hear what happened'? Why do you think it's good to lie so boldly like that?"

Her voice, no longer straining to be calm but already showing signs of being irritated, scares Touma. Though it's happened many times before, and it only lasts a moment, trauma is still trauma.

"Do you want me to say I didn't or not!"

Careful to balance the weight, Kamijou quickly brings up his left hand to block her first strike with his palm, pushing her face so her teeth only barely graze his earlobe. However, this change in his position causes a wobble as he strains his right arm and leans toward his right to compensate. He chokes a little as Index's small arm grabs tighter to keep on top of him as well as make her next attack.

Unable to recover from Index's movements influencing his own posture, Kamijou Touma's left palm slams against the keyboard, immediately bringing up an "error" window from the erroneous key-punching that it detected. A loud beep causes him to jump away to release his hand from pressing down on the laptop, which upon the sudden jerk, Index pulled her arms tight to hold on like reining a runaway horse.

This new change in momentum overcomes the strength in Kamijou's core to stay strong and he tumbles backward.

He feels the soft linen and a warmth pressing against his cheek. When he opens his eyes, Kamijou is greeted with white cloth covering his eyes and on the sides of his face, two pale skinned legs suddenly kicked him backward.

Kamijou didn't want to know what he saw when he glanced upward for the faintest second when he traced where those two legs originated from. Even so, his mind was prevented from processing that thought when in a fit, Index leaped onto him and her teeth clamped onto his scalp like a bear trap.

In a flurry of chaotic movements, bite marks adorned Touma's face and neck, arms and shoulders.

He could only sigh in pain as he glanced over toward the computer and where the small cat Sphinx had found a landing pad when Touma and Index tumbled over. With a soft mew, it adjusted its paws and a prompt appeared on the screen.

"Delete?"

"Hold on!" Touma scrambled forward to grab the cat off of the computer, ignoring the small girl's demands that he not bully Sphinx.

Suddenly, a pair of hands pulled against his rear leg, bringing him short of scooping the cat with his left hand. His lunge however was enough to cause the cat to leap off and rush back to Index, activating the prompt and the message disappeared from the screen.

Using his arms, Touma pulled himself forward to move the cursor over the recycling bin just as the computer screen turned to blue with white text.

It seemed that when the computer crashed like that, any memory that was outside of the regular drive was dumped, according to the blue text. On this computer model, the recycling bin was one of those programs that stores outside of the regular drive. So anything in the recycling bin was immediately dumped out of the whole computer's cache.

That's how the 27th started for Kamijou Touma.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Please give me you thoughts

To Aru Majutsu no Index written by Kazama Kamachi and I'll worry about further copywrites when I get to those properties

This fic will eventually become a crossover, but it's in the general section because I'm against segregation (really, FFnet? You don't allow crossovers to update in the host story threads? Sheesh...)

**Edit (2/18/11):** found a To Aru timeline on the Wiki so I changed the date of the "Event" from the 23rd to the 29th, since the North Italy Arc finishes on the 26th


	2. Two Schools of Thought  EnterAbnormal

Chapter 1: Two Schools of Thought - Enter_Abnormal**

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****Part 1**

Academy City is home to 2,300,000 students, researchers and teachers.

Some teachers are researchers and other researchers are teachers.

The students however, are all subjects in various kinds of experiments, studies and tests.

The various stores and shops, the kind you would find anywhere that sell electronics, sports equipment, baked goods, confectionaries, glasses, appliances, are all participants in the experiments, studies and tests.

Determining what days with what kinds of weather during a certain part of the year affect the appeal of a product based off of sales receipts collected, what types of fonts in restaurant menus and whether a picture of the food item is included affects the overall interest in that item, even within the specific kind of venture whether it is a family restaurant, a fine dining establishment or a fast food joint.

What streets are walked the most by pedestrians and how effective advertising in other areas can redirect consumers to new parts of the city out of interest of what was advertised.

There are more direct ways to collect the necessary data as well.

The daunting spectrum that the students that comprise most of the population of 2,300,000 can place is easily managed within the confines of the hundreds of schools that consist of the majority of buildings within Academy City.

From trying new forms of teaching styles to the results of grades depending on the wording of the tests, both qualitative and quantitative results become available.

What is most astounding about all of this, are the students themselves.

The range of subjects that they study is generally the same, though it depends greatly on the institution. As with most of the city, tuition is mostly subsidized or even free, so though there are differences in class there is no great disparity especially within Academy City.

There are schools that even royalty had been dropped out of because they did not show the academic ability.

The single most important curriculum is the Level system.

Ranked from 0 to 5, the students of Academy City come for the prospect of developing abilities seen only in comics and movies in the "outside world".

It is not uncommon for objects to levitate or for people to suddenly appear in front of you on a day to day basis.

That is the kind of place that Academy City is.

For the small number of students, despite being Level 0, meaning not having any significant ability to none at all, it is enough to be able to see the fantastic that those outside of the city can only read or hear about or see videos of online.

For being a Level 0 himself, high school student Kamijou Touma often finds himself in a remedial class afterschool for not having the required academic achievements, such as developing any sort of ESPer ability.

He sighs, sitting out at his usual desk. His extra lessons have just finished, but his troubles will never end.

Slouching onto the desk, the depressed high school student is slapped in the back on top of one of his bite wounds from the morning.

"Cheer up, Kami-yan, at least you have the date and place, right?"

A chipper voice tries to assuage the still reeling Touma, obviously not feeling regret from his actions as he continues to speak.

"And who knows, it could be that a childhood friend of yours is coming to visit you to fulfill a promise you made with a pinky swear, Kami-ya-"

The excited speech is quickly ended with a jab to the stomach, a counter attack that came from the still seated Touma as he gently massages his own shoulder.

The one who was counterattacked lets out an impressed grin that formed with gritted teeth as he recovers from the jab. Though normally unseen behind his dark sunglasses, the eyes of the blond haired Tsuchimikado Motoharu look at Touma with no malice at being hurt. The chain of his gold necklace shuffles about as he regains a normal standing posture.

"Of course, there's no way she'll be a pretty as my Maika."

Puffing up his chest with that proclamation, a small pink object zooms into the room from the open classroom door.

Like a pink blur, it moves quickly to behind the desk at the front of the room where only her head is visible but after a bit it suddenly moves up to the front of the desk to show a girl that is actually a small woman with pink hair.

With a smile she says

"Ok students, your quizzes are graded and you've passed today's make-up classes."

Placing papers that she carried in with her onto the desk, she returns to behind the desk and takes a seat on the chair where she immediately begins to write into her teacher's binder.

Tsukiyomi Komoe avidly fills in the attendance notes as the two teens clean up and file toward the desk to collect their papers. There is no surprise at the form their teacher takes, though every now and then there is some teasing of one of Academy City's seven great mysteries.

The two teens wordlessly fit their quizzes into their respective school bags and being to leave for their lockers, not forgetting to say their goodbyes to the teacher that looked like she belonged as a student in elementary school.

Normally there was a third member of their remedial class, but while they were being instructed about AIM Diffusion and the different aspects of ESPer abilities, Aogami Pierce was off somewhere in line for a game that was just released today, which was previously delayed in shipping out over the weekend because of the storm.

"Kamijou, Tsuchimikado, could you please tell Aogami that he'll have to stay a bit longer after tomorrow's class as punishment to make up for the time he lost today?"

'_That's no punishment! That's definitely something that Aogami would find as an achievement'_

The two boys immediately thought that, but said nothing of the sort out loud.

They repeated their goodbyes to the teacher, and upon leaving the building after an uneventful school day, Kamijou Touma and Tsuchimikado Motoharu walked to purchase ice cream that would be out of fashion to get after they changed into winter uniforms soon.

"So what have you been up to since the Daihasei ended, Kami-yan?" as ambiguously as ever, Tsuchimikado offers a grin that shows his question was quite rhetorical.

"_Tsk_" Touma tut-tuts in response, no longer feeling the need to explain the details of that time he spent in the warm waters of the Adriatic Sea a few days ago. "I meant to go out for my _birthday_ the other day, but that storm kept me and Index in the whole night…"

He decided to change his tactic to try to bring out a sympathetic reaction from the other teen. Surely the mention of his birthday would bring out a more charitable mood out of Tsuchimikado. He didn't want to go any further than that since Touma wasn't even aware of his own birthday until he had tripped over the package his parents had sent to him.

Like many things since that night on July 28th, Kamijou Touma had forgotten things like his parents, life in his hometown and even his birthday.

"Oh" Tsuchimikado began thoughtfully.

"I guess Stiyl is really going to get upset when I tell him that Index and Kami-yan did who-knows-what together during a storm…"

"Don't mess up my story up that much, you bastard" Touma grumbled at the thought of seeing that red-haired mage because of such a misunderstanding.

The fact that Tsuchimikado could say such a thing to tease Touma was because he was a mage as well.

A former member of Necessarius—a sect of the Anglican Church that Index is from—but also in good terms with many other organizations, Tsuchimikado Motoharu was very enigmatic, especially for Touma as he was unfamiliar with most things pertaining with the shadowy world of magic.

"But back to the matter of that event that's supposed to happen on the 29th…"

It wasn't often that the blond haired magician would return to a previous topic, at least not unless it was either related to magic or some strange anime reference.

"Maybe your cousin is coming to visit?" Though also a form of teasing, to Touma it was more a reference to the time during Angel Fall, when everyone's appearances had changed and the girl whom he learned to be his cousin had taken the young form of a certain middle school girl.

Then again, as this was Tsuchimikado, chances were that he knew exactly what was supposed to happen on the 29th, if it had anything to do with Academy City.

"I dunno…" Touma could only sigh, his thoughts returning again to the lost message. "I tried to ask my parents by email, but they decided to keep it a surprise and not tell me."

**

* * *

Part 2.**

As a member of Judgment, Shirai Kuroko has a number of responsibilities to attend to.

Keeping lines orderly during large gatherings and events, such as during the Daihasei sports festival a week or so ago; giving directions; volunteering for small projects such as summer camps and taking care of litter and preventing small crimes and misdemeanors, such as making said litter.

They also act as a vanguard force for Academy City's primary security force, the Anti-Skills, by setting patrols in each of the school districts and participating in conflicts that are appropriate to them.

Unlike the Anti-Skills, who are adults that volunteer in addition to their regular day jobs, Judgment members are students, and their jurisdiction lies within their own school district. As students however, members of Judgment may not have access to the weapons and much more vast authority that Anti-Skill has but in order to stop and catch delinquent ESPers, they are often allowed to use their own powers to ensure order.

Such as that, in past times, Shirai Kuroko used her teleportation ability and limited training she received from Judgment to apprehend criminals such as thugs misusing their powers or small level crimes such as curfew breakers or vandals.

Being a Level 4, she does not often find the "small work" too troublesome to handle, just troublesome to be assigned to.

It is because of this sort of outlook on her abilities and the range of missions she is able to take on that Shirai Kuroko gives a small sigh as she continues her current mission escorting an "outsider".

Combing her bangs carefully away from her eyes, in a manner only a student of Tokiwadai would, she gave a quick glance to the older girl walking just slightly ahead to her left side.

Wearing a school uniform of outside origin, the older girl looked about the city in admiration of the sights but seemingly not amazed as most outsiders often would be on their first visit to Academy City.

The uniform was black with yellow trim, with sets of light blue lining towards the collar and matched the light blue skirt that was just a bit longer than the Tokiwadai uniform's. Her ample chest, though restrained by the uniform top by a red tie toward the collar, seemed ready to burst and seemed out of place for an otherwise flashy-looking high school girl.

Kuroko twitched at how well fitted the uniform was, almost unseemly so, almost to the point that she wanted to place this girl and a certain large foreheaded Tokiwadai student side by side for a proper comparison of the two.

As it was asked of her to be a tour guide rather than a bodyguard, Kuroko made it a point to walk about the districts through Academy City rather than take one of the charter buses that would have gone straight to the School Garden where she was told this girl was sent to reside in for a time.

While there were high class hotels and residences that were meant to specifically cater to visitors to Academy City in District 3, Kuroko couldn't help but wonder why this girl wasn't given access to temporarily stay at the Kirigaoka Girl's Academy dormitory. Its dormitory was comparable to the ones in the School Garden, and it would have made more sense logistically, since there wouldn't have been a need to shuttle between the school and the dormitory.

No other details were really given.

Currently they were in the 15th District, a place Kuroko thought would be a good place for a tourist to visit to learn of the various kinds of shopping available before they moved on to the actual school, and the girl had yet to ask to go anywhere else.

In general, the older girl had led the pair around and would ask a question or two to which Kuroko would answer, if not from memory then after a moment of glancing at a paper-thin screen that emerged from a lipstick-looking device which displayed the information, which was actually her cell phone.

"Miss Shirai."

The voice of the girl brought Kuroko out of her musing and found her staring straight at her green Judgment armband.

There was a slight sparkle in her dark hazel eyes as she inspected the armband. Before she had a chance to ask what she needed, Kurokami Medaka offered a wide smile and a firm hand on the smaller girl's shoulder.

"As a favor for showing me around, let me treat you to something to eat. Also, could you show me where a good place to eat is? I have no idea where we are right now."

No embarrassment was laced in that mix of generosity and admission of being lost, leaving Kuroko not knowing exactly how to respond.

"Of course I would be delighted to." Kuroko offered in her most polite tone and walked in front to lead the way toward the crepe trucks she knew were close by.

**

* * *

Part 3.**

Kamijou Touma was quite a misfortunate person.

Sitting in a booth of a Macronall Hamburger restaurant, he forces a smile at the teen sitting in the seat opposite of him.

He politely laughed at certain points of the other person's story as well as leaned in close at other parts when it seemed his attention was really called for. All the while, Kamijou Touma tried to think who this person was.

He couldn't tell if he was someone he met a year ago, or someone from a farther past. Essentially because Touma had no prior memory before he woke up after a certain incident that happened on the night of July 28th.

His current predicament happened right after he parted ways with Tsuchimikado in front of the crepe trucks where there was a discount sale of the ice cream style crepes before winter season arrived.

Knowing full well that Index would surely be able to tell that he had eaten without her, even if he did all he could to hide the evidence, Touma headed home to his apartment dormitory when someone called out his name from behind him.

From the sound of a deep voice, Touma began thinking that it may have been Aogami Pierce or someone else from his class, turning around and not able to find the source of who had called out to him amidst the long crowd that stretched around the block that was seeking discounted ice cream crepes.

Soon his eyes settled on a blond haired teen waving his hands and walking toward him. There was no need to look around to spot someone else waving toward the person, as he called out again

"Hey Touma, that's you, right? Been a while!"

Not wanting to seem out of character—whatever that was—Touma could only scratch his nape out of an awkward behavioral tic and waved back with an anxious grin.

"Yeah…it's me(?)"

Since then it's been about half an hour that they've sat in the restaurant and the teen, who had yet to introduce himself, continued to reminisce on things that Touma couldn't recall.

No longer able to keep up the ruse, a guilt-ridden Touma was about to admit not remembering the teen when he heard

"So you don't really remember me, huh?"

It wasn't a question asked to accuse him but to confirm a suspicion.

Did he know that he had lost his memory?

Only a few people really knew this fact. It was something that Kamijou Touma, trapped between the worlds of Science and Magic, kept very closely or else it might be something that could be taken advantage of and put his friends in danger.

Namely a young girl named Index.

In any case, this person had become someone that Kamijou Touma couldn't talk to without paying serious attention to what was being said or else something important could be spilled in case he was dealing with a spy for either the Science or Magic side.

The look on the teen's face was diametrically different than what was shown during the previous half hour of storytelling. It was a passive, observant look toward Touma as the teen crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back into the seat of the booth.

"None of the things I just said we did ever really happened…" He admitted, as though proclaiming that he had caught Touma in a trap.

Had he been caught? Was this another Touma that this guy was looking for, and it just so happened that they had the same name?

"Kamijou Touma…we met when we were around two years old…"

That narrowed down the list of other Touma's that he might have been mistaken to be.

"The name's Hitoyoshi Zenkichi?"

The name didn't seem to be familiar.

"…the son of Hitoyoshi Hitomi?"

That name wasn't familiar either.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped." Calm about the whole situation, the teen, dressed in a black school uniform with yellow trim and sporting a red tie with yellow highlights opened up his arms casually to rest on the top edge of the booth cushion.

The uniform isn't from any school that he recognized from within Academy City.

"We only played around two or three times when you came by to play, so it isn't that strange that you don't remember me."

This sparks something in Touma's mind, but nothing directly about Zenkichi.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember where it was I came by to when we met…"

Touma sheepishly admits to the less excited but now more relaxed teenager.

"Oh, you don't remember that either, huh?"

Again, this point of information is taken in by a relaxed teenager.

"I guess it's for the best then, considering what my mom used to practice back then, and all."

As the conversation continued, Touma is less and less sure of what Hitoyoshi Zenkichi's objective is in meeting with him.

"Wait, you wouldn't happen to know my parents then, right? You're that someone that was mentioned in my parent's message? Aren't you supposed to get here on the 29th?"

'_Today's still the 27__th__, isn't it?'_

The sudden barrage of questions that come out from a surprised Touma don't seem to faze Zenkichi, but they do raise a sense of interest from his facial expressions.

"I personally don't know your parents, but our parents know each other, enough. In fact, it was my mom who told me about you being here in Academy City."

Leaning forward with arms on the table, Zenkichi begins with a straightforward enough answer for Touma.

"Anyway, I have a few things to take care of, Touma. It was pretty cool to see you after all this time."

The blond teen, who obviously was from outside of Academy City, gave a quick glance outside the window before removing himself from the booth.

Leaving a few hundred yen for food they had never ordered, Zenkichi had coolly exited the restaurant, leaving Kamijou Touma scratching his head.

**

* * *

Part 4**

Kuroko Shirai was quite misfortunate today.

Not only had she missed out on what the small girl considered her MAO, also known as her "Minimum Amount of Onee-sama" for the day, haven been called in for duty early by Judgment but that very duty, which was playing escort to an outsider, had all of a sudden gone from her sight.

To make matters worse, before she could rush off to find her, Kuroko received a call from her colleague currently stationed in her branch's office about a disturbance involving delinquents.

Taking out a small lipstick container-like tube, she unclasped a part of it and attached it as an earpiece.

"When it rains, it pours…" she could only sigh.

"Excuse me, what was that, Shirai?" the confused tone of a girl asked on the other side of the call.

"Never mind, Uiharu. Please continue with the sitrep."

"Alright."

The sound of plastic clacking can be heard in the background. Kuroko, walking toward a more open portion of sidewalk, pauses while waiting where the disturbance is happening. As a teleporter, Kuroko is more than capable of quickly arriving at a scene, but is unable to do anything before knowing her destination.

"It's just a couple of blocks down from where you are, Shirai." Without saying specifically, the device in Kuroko's hand chirped, receiving the directions from Uiharu who was obviously at a computer still typing away.

Taking a glance at the map created on the attachment sent to her, Kuroko took of special note the corresponding coordinates of the alleyway that branched off of a main street.

"There's actually a hole in the system; the cameras in the alleyway were scheduled for replacement just today, so I don't have direct access to it."

"Is there a neighboring unit that you can use to see into the alleyway?" Now prepared with her destination, Kuroko Shirai began to run toward the spot specified on the map, but because of the number of pedestrians she was still unable to see down the street in order to properly begin teleporting.

"I've tried but the best I can do is an adjacent camera that can only see a few meters into the alleyway, but according to the city blueprints the alley turns, so they must be out of view inside a blind spot." Looking at several open windows on her two computer screens, Uiharu retrieves a video playback while static intersperses the call between her and Kuroko.

It's not that the signal of their call is bad, or that the service was having problems per se, but as a result of her ability, Kuroko would move between 3-dimensional and 11-dimensional space, so as a result, interference was bound to occur.

"I'm here…Uiharu" the sound of wind in the background could be heard from Uiharu's receiver, as she viewed through the last half hour of footage from the available security cameras in the area.

"I've reviewed it again and determined that there should be eight to ten of them and a student; I believe that she's an ESPer."

"So they could Skill-Out?"

"Most possibly, yes."

Skill-Out, a gang of delinquents that had made themselves known throughout Academy City, were notorious for their violent actions and anti-ESPer motivations as a group comprised of Level 0s unable to achieve powers from the curriculum. Though their reasons varied, ultimately Skill-Out was made up of those afraid or envious of ESPers and would often overcome their powerlessness by overwhelming a victim with numbers and weapons.

"I've already notified Anti-Skill, they should be there in a moment."

"Alright, thanks for the heads up." Kuroko replaced the earpiece and returned the device into her pocket, readying herself to jump from her position on the rooftop overlooking the narrow alley about thirty feet below her.

Taking care not to step on the light-absorbent panels of the interior rooftop, Kuroko cautiously but quickly rushed alongside the edge until she arrived at end of the building and the turn in the alley that Uiharu had mentioned.

Looking over into the alley she immediately spotted the victimized student hiding against a wall, but when looking for the telltale mass of Skill-Out members, she saw not eight to ten ruffians, but fifteen. Even more than that, there was another girl standing just between the terrified ESPer girl and the gang.

One of the gangsters approached the unknown figure with hands outstretched toward the girl's well proportioned- "What the…?" Kuroko exclaimed, before quickly jumping down.

Letting out a groan, the teenager fell to the ground face first.

From where there was nothing just a second ago, Shirai Kuroko dropped to the ground from five feet above them, landing just in front of the black-clad girl.

"Just _what_ were you trying to do, Miss Kurokami?"

With her hands placed on her hips and taking an authoritative stance, Kuroko demanded an answer with a huff.

The girl, not nearly as surprised as the gang around them was at the sudden appearance of a small girl—much less the surprise attack on the one teenager—didn't hesitate before responding. "As the Hakoniwa Academy Student Body President it is my duty to-"

"Well you're _not_ at Hakoniwa Academy or wherever at the moment are you?"

Kuroko interrupted Medaka.

Throwing away her polite speech and personality as a "Tour Guide", the smaller girl put on her identity as a member of "Judgment".

It took only a glance for Kuroko to see the red armband around Medaka's sleeve, but it did nothing to change her quietly seething anger.

"And it doesn't matter if you're on some field trip where you have to wear your school uniform until you reach home! Even if you represent your school, you're still only a visitor in Academy City and this girl is not from your school either."

She pressed her index finger against Medaka in a chastising manner.

"If anything, your act of vigilantism only gave me a second person to protect as a member of Judgment." This came out as a sigh, if anything else.

Completely focused on speaking to the purple haired Medaka as though she were someone else at the moment, Kuroko gave no thought to the frustrated teenagers now encroaching on them.

"You're next, you troublemakers!" In a most casual manner, Kuroko waved her hand over her skirt before three of the scraggily looking teens found themselves pinned to the brick wall.

Embedded through their sleeves and pant legs, more than fifteen nails in total were now holding the three immobile against the wall.

Though causing hesitation, the display did nothing to ultimately scare the gang of eleven members left.

"Get them!" One of them rallied before finding himself looking up at the sky. In just the following moment, he yelped before the sensation of falling against the garbage cans called attention to the small twin tailed girl appearing under another teen and throwing him too in a judo-like manner.

"My, oh my, it appears I got the order a bit wrong, so I hope you'll accept my apologies." Wearing a confident smile, Kuroko held the corner of her green armband tightly to show the wording of her Judgment emblem. "I'm here with Judgment!"

Hidden within the crowd of teens, one of them reached his hand into his jean vest. "Tsk, it don't matter that we don't have abilities…" He gasped at seeing the small girl just inches away from his face. Her hand pressed against his vest where his hand was still under, but the next thing he knew, the plastic grip had disappeared from within his grasp. "How the hell?" He jumped back, pushing a few other teens and making it aware to the group that the girl had teleported within their rank.

"Possessing guns of this nature are illegal in Academy City, so of course I'll be confiscating this." Hearing a thump behind her, Kuroko quickly glanced over her shoulder to see Kurokami Medaka throwing over a teen in a judo-like fashion.

'_Is she a teleporter…?_' Kuroko asked herself, looking in front of her again to find that the spot where just moments ago she saw the outsider and the school girl now empty.

Essentially there were two thoughts running concurrently in her mind.

The first such thought was of the outsider also being an ESPer, and then more specifically being a teleporter. She thought of that first because of the sheer distance that had to have been crossed in such a short amount of time, as well as the number of gang members acting as obstacles between where Kurokami Medaka had been and where she was currently dodging an upward knife thrust with ease.

As a teleporter herself, Kuroko would have felt the similar wavelength in AIM between them, as she had with Musujume Awaki. Of even greater note was the matter of Kurokami Medaka being an ESPer.

Of the few details noted on the mission briefing she received that morning from Konori Mii, her superior, Kurokami Medaka was considered level 0. However, as Hakoniwa Academy was a known friendly school outside of Academy City, as well as a trading and research partner, would that mean that there existed another program different from the Level system?

"Miss Shirai?" Medaka's voice called her to her, and before she knew it, all of the Skill-Out had been rendered incapacitated.

In fact, a pair of them had even been shackled to a pipe with a pair of special anti-ESPer handcuffs that Judgment was provided with to confront wayward ESPers. The wail of Anti-Skill sirens blurted out and echoed into the alleyway, and regaining her focus, Kuroko glanced toward the purple haired girl before her.

"I apologize for overstepping my bounds and going past my jurisdictional boundaries. Or actually, thinking that I did have any outside of my school."

Kuroko looked on thoughtfully, before accepting the hand outstretched towards her to shake.

"There's really no problem. And please, just call me Kuroko."

"Of course, Kuroko. You can just call me Medaka."

The two girls began walking out of the alleyway just as black-clad Anti-Skill rushed in full gear to begin apprehending the beaten up gangmembers. Up ahead at the entrance, the victimized schoolgirl was draped in a wool blanket and regaling the Anti-Skill officer with what had happened.

" …I just wish you hadn't spurned them on with violence when you arrived!" Medaka continued, "I was trying to coax those men out of their timid behaviors by teaching them the proper way to ask out a girl, unlike how they propositioned her earlier with intimidation. To be honest, I don't know why men don't try to use their confidence instead."

The small girl thought back to when the first teen had approached Medaka with his hands up, palms forward in a manner all too familiar that she'd adopt at times with her roommate. All of this, when said with a self assured smile and a sigh by the outsider school girl, caused Kuroko a hard time in trying to determine what the other girl was even talking about.

**

* * *

Between the Lines 1**

In a windowless building there is a (person).

This (person), aware of many things that happen in Academy City, is the General Superintendent of Academy City and head of the Board of Directors who lead the city.

Aleister Crowley.

A smile has appeared on his face because of what he has just heard.

There are two people standing in front of him from what appears to be the ceiling of a vast nondescript room. This is what it looks like from his perspective.

However, the two people aren't looking down to where he is, but looking up.

That is because this (person) is the one whose perspective is the opposite of what is normal. Within a transparent cylinder filled with a red fluid that permeates throughout every cell in his body, Aleister Crowley is upside down and smiling.

"I'm glad to hear that we can continue."

With an even wider smile is a girl very similar to Tsukiyomi Komoe, but is quite different from her.

Her hair is a light teal and her high school uniform looks childish on her, despite it being custom fitted for her small size.

Even though she was searched for contraband before being brought into the windowless building, the girl takes a bite of beef jerky and snickers at the appropriate reaction of the (person) in the cylinder before her.

"Yeah, sure. It was close, but the fact is, we're ahead of time even, huh?"

With a second bite, the foot long piece of jerky has disappeared, and the girl is already starting on a hamburger.

"Apologies of course are in order. The experiment was scheduled under the impression that the weekend's storm would last for another two days."

This confession from that (person) does not hold a sense of remorse that a conventional apology would have.

What he said was simply a statement of their error in the original schedule.

There was no doubt to anyone from Academy City that weather prediction had suffered since more than a month ago.

For an even fewer number of people within Academy City, knowing that the destruction of the Tree Diagram and failure to retrieve the Remnant of the satellite had forced the cancellation or modification of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of experiments and projects.

"However, this indeed is a benefit to both of our sides for our...'mutual understandings' about each other's programs."

"I guess."

"I'll let the appropriate people know of the changes. Please send your grandfather my regards."

"Sure thing." With a shrug, a look of disinterest is hidden under her wide smile and uncontrolled laughter. "Oh by the way, a few things happened back at Hakoniwa Academy, so there've been a bunch of changes with the people who'll be representing us. Also, since it was so short notice, we haven't even had the time to create profiles for you guys!"

"That will be fine."

Aleister Crowley, not upset at this change, nods his head after hearing this.

"It's quite the coincidence, but we too have had some interesting developments occur here, so the information that is currently in your possession about our representatives is no longer up to date. It's unfortunate that we won't be able to see whether our {Level 6 Shift} or your {Flask Plan} is the superior model."

"So we're both even, huh?"

The small girl grins while finishing up with a can of soda.

"That's alright…I'm sure the Principal will be ok with just 'testing' the strength of each others' school curriculums!"

With no concerns about how she looked with crumbs left on her face, Shiranui Hansode is that sort of person.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hope you enjoyed reading, stay tuned for Chap 2!

All characters belong to writers Kazama Kamachi (To Aru Majutsu no Index) and Nisio Isin (Medaka Box) respectfully


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